Gov. Hair is to Texas schoolchildren what earthquakes are to Haiti

What more can Gov. Hair do to doom the chances for Texas' public school students? Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at his callous disregard for the future of this state, but I'm wondering how this clown sleeps at night.

His latest stunt was to deny Texas a chance at $700 million in school funds, money the state was eligible for if it completed and submitted a "Race to the Top" application. The Texas Education Agency reported it spent between 700 and 800 hours preparing and completing the application, but Hair refused to submit it. Why? Because it violates his right wingnut approach. Hair says, in effect, "you take that $700 million and the next thing you know, the feds have taken over our school system."

Yet, in a letter to Hair last week, State Representative Garnet Coleman (pictured, right) of Houston, vice chair of the Select Committee on Federal Legislation and a member of the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, wrote:

"Submitting the application for Race to the Top Funds will allow our state to compete with other states for grants. Race to the Top is not like unemployment insurance stimulus funds, which you turned down because of possible 'strings attached'. This is a competitive program where states that do better will receive larger allocations."

Following Hair's decision not to submit the application, Coleman said:

"It's shocking that Governor Perry doesn't even want to let Texas compete with other states for Race to the Top funds. His argument against applying boils down to the fact that he doesn't like the teacher that will grade his test. This is an application that even awards points for his own pet policies - teacher incentive pay and charter school expansion. He used $10 million in federal funds to create his own teacher incentive pay program in 2005, but he's willing to go back on his own principles in an effort to score political points. Maybe Governor Perry should take his own advice and not bother competing for re-election. At least then Texas schoolchildren would have a fighting chance at a decent education."

Newsweek predicts White to win governor's election

No. 10 on Newsweek's "Politics Predictions for 2010" is this doozy: Former Houston Mayor Bill White (pictured right) will narrowly defeat Gov. Hair in next year's Texas gubernatorial election. Here is what the weekly news magazine had to say about next year's heated election:

"If Texas is emblematic of America’s proclivity for bombast and superlatives, then its 2010 governor’s race will be no exception. Expect things to be big and bloody, as national ideological struggles play out, Texas-style. In one corner, the state’s longest-serving governor and occasional secessionist, Rick Perry, is battling it out with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a moderate by Texas Republican standards who’s more appealing to a general audience. The colorful insults hurled over the past few months will only intensify as Perry, who’s favored by ultraconservatives, tries to escape Hutchinson’s charges that he’s marginalized and sullied the party. Our money’s on Perry as the victor in the March primary, if only for the anti-Washington sentiment swirling around the state. But he won’t emerge unscathed. As the primary takes its toll on his public image, doors open for the likely Democratic candidate, well-liked Houston Mayor Bill White, whose energy and planning initiatives, along with his economic management, have won him broad favor. By building a coalition of Hispanics, independents, and moderate Republicans from Texas’s growing, more Democrat-friendly urban centers, White will waltz into the governor’s mansion. But just barely."

Let the mud slinging begin

It didn't take long for this campaign to get nasty. Hutch officially announces only yesterday and already Gov. Hair has this Website up and running.